[WikiEN-l] Tower of Babel - Voting to ignore MoS, NCs for language reasons.

[Ray Saintonge]

Tom Cadden wrote:

>--- Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Unlike many
>>other French-speaking 
>>countries the official name for English purposes is
>>the French one.  See 
>>the member list for the United Nations at 
>>http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html  This does
>>not mean that other 
>>French speaking countries follow the same practice. 
>>The Central African 
>>Republic does not appear as République
>>Centraficaine. 
>>    
>>
>That is irrelevant. The official name of the Republic
>of Ireland is Poblacht na hÉireann. We do not use it.
>
Nor is the Irish language name a part of the English language list of UN 
members.  (I can't remember for sure if "Eire" was ever on that list, 
but if it were that would be a valid argument for changing our entry.)

>>Maybe the US State Department is just following the
>>UN lead on this.  
>>The proportion of newspapers and websites using the
>>English name is 
>>irrelevant.  The position of official Ivoirian sites
>>is more influential.
>>    
>>
>The position of Ivoirian sites is irrelevant. This is
>not an Ivoirian encyclopædia but an English language
>one that does not write its articles to suit
>governments and official sites. 
>
I didn't say simply "Ivoirian sites" but "official Ivoirian sites" such 
as the English language materials from their embassies.

>>Determining the official name of a country is not a
>>matter for voting.  
>>That is a sure way of having facts overwhelmed by
>>ignorance.
>>    
>>
>I'm surprised you don't know that WP policy IS to
>decide the location of an article by voting. It is
>done through requesting moves and voting on them. It
>is a standard procedure used throughout WP.  
>  
>
That only proves the point about voting being evil.  With enough 
flunkies behind it any POV can prevail.

Ec